


Love's Keen Edge

by Bragi151, KakushiMiko



Category: Durarara!!, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Captain America/Iron Man Reverse Big Bang 2016, F/M, M/M, Mind Control, Partial Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-07-10 14:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6988924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bragi151/pseuds/Bragi151, https://archiveofourown.org/users/KakushiMiko/pseuds/KakushiMiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony Stark is stabbed outside of Ikebukuro Station in Japan, Steve decides it's high time that he ups his game when it comes to wooing Iron Man. Of course, trying to find out why Hydra is going underground and looking for, and eventually finding, Bucky, to say nothing of Tony's own work pushing back against anti Super Human sentiment, makes that somewhat more difficult. And then there's the new vigilante turned supervillain running around, only known as the Slasher.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love's Keen Edge

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank Miko for her unending patience while I was getting this written. Thank you all for taking the time to read the fic, and I hope you enjoy it :D
> 
> Art will be embedded in the fic itself, so avail yourself of Miko's outstanding talent!

Steve closed his eyes, relaxing in the common room of the new Avengers compound. They had just finished morning training and they were taking a short break. Steve switched the news on while the rest of the team filed through the room, going about their various bits of business. Vision was doting on Wanda, as he was wont to do, while the woman began preparing herself some breakfast. Natasha was going over some data from training with Sam and Rhodey. The two of them, as well as Vision and Wanda, were working on how to better coordinate in the air, and they were getting better at it day by day. There hadn’t been any midair collisions in the past week. Steve couldn’t ask for more.

Well, that was a lie.

Steve could ask for Tony to come back.

Steve let out a sigh as he brushed his fingers over his face. The team had yet to feel like a smooth well-oiled machine since the departure of Iron Man. Tony brought something to the team, whether it was his smarts, his irreverent humor, or simply his ability to challenge Steve and force Captain America to consider other options. Steve respected Tony’s decision to take some time off from the team, but that never meant that Steve had considered it permanent. Steve knew that Tony was still working through the emotional aftermath of Ultron and Sokovia, but Steve hoped that Tony knew that Steve, at least, still trusted him, even if Tony seemed to no longer trust himself.

Steve knew that the fissures Ultron had formed in Tony’s self-confidence, more than anything else, were the reason for his hiatus from the Avengers. That, and probably his recent, and very public, romantic split from his CEO, Pepper Potts. Steve had remembered hearing it from Tony in one of their rather frequent calls before it had hit the news. Steve made sure to keep in regular contact with Tony, knowing that the genius might not do so on his own.

This frequent communication with Tony was completely innocent, despite the way Natasha arched her eyebrow at him whenever she caught him on the phone with Tony for more than an hour. Steve was also not at all happy that Tony was now romantically available. Steve was also very sure he was not at all planning to wait an appropriate amount of time before trying to close the gap that had formed between them since Ultron. That was, after all, the only gap that Steve wanted to close. Steve was very emotionally self-aware and not at all in denial.

Steve shook his head to clear it. He had enough to deal with at the moment, searching for Bucky, getting the team ready for future fights, ensuring that the global political community and their leashes stayed well enough away, for him to worry about his completely and totally non-existent crush on Iron Man.

Yes, Steve thought adamantly to himself, the fate of the free world should come before anything else, including my attraction to-

“Tony Stark was stabbed today while on a business trip to Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Stark was reportedly in the area in order to deal with several requests from Japanese media company regarding rights to license Avengers based media,” the news caster said, her voice smooth and unruffled. Steve noticed that all the chatter in the room had died down. Everyone was focused on the television, “The assailant has been identified as one Kasane Kujiragi, who is in critical condition after Mr. Stark fought back against his attacker. Doctors have yet to release any information on whether or not they believe Ms. Kujiragi will survive.”

Steve heard a crunching noise, his eyes flickering towards his hand. He had apparently crushed the remote with the force of his grip.

“Ms. Kujiragi attacked Mr. Stark as he was greeting fans outside Ikebukuro Station. According to eye witness testimony, Mr. Stark was shaking hand with Ms. Kujiragi when she brought a katana out from hiding and proceeded to stab Mr. Stark in the chest before Mr. Stark retaliated by blasting the woman with a repulsor to the chest. She was sent flying above the crowd before landing on the ground, suffering mostly blunt force trauma. Mr. Stark was already in critical condition by the time paramedics arrived on the scene, and Doctors have refused to release any information regarding Mr. Stark’s status at this time. More on this story as it develops, after this break.”

The TV winked off, startling Steve out of his trance. He looked to see Wanda by the TV, her hand hovering over the power button, “We should contact Ms. Potts if we wish to find out the truth about Stark.” Her voice was gentle as she looked at Steve. He jumped off the couch, frantically reaching for the phone in his pockets when Rhodey’s voice cut through the panic.

“Already on it,” Rhodey said, holding his phone to his ear. The man’s face was blank, but Steve could see the roiling emotions in the man’s eyes. None of them, except perhaps Wanda, who was still coming to terms with the fact that Tony was not pure evil, was unaffected by the news. It seemed an odd stroke of fate, for Tony to be severely injured after retiring from the Avengers, rather than during his escapades with the team.

Steve supposed there was a certain amount of danger to being a public persona, but Tony had been doing it all of his life, and had always come out the other side. Hell, Steve thought, the worst kidnapping attempt the man had ever encountered had led him to becoming Iron Man. But still, this rankled. Tony was usually perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and Steve would never presume differently, but he couldn’t help but be upset at the fact that none of them had been there for Tony, that none of them _were_ there for Tony, as he was lying in a hospital bed, fate unknown, the only information they would be getting coming through the phone and filtered via Ms. Potts.

“Pep, I just heard. What’s going on?” Rhodey asked, his grip on the phone white knuckled. Steve knew, though, that the StarkPhone wouldn’t break under the Colonel’s grip. It had been designed so that even Steve would have a hard time breaking it. There was some chatter on the other end of the line before Rhodey let out a sigh. The tension in the room seemed to leak away the same time the tension in Rhodey’s shoulders did.

“Alright, Pep, thanks for the update. Let me know if anything changes?” Rhodey made one last affirmative noise before hanging up his phone.

“Pep says that Tony’s going to be fine. The stab was, apparently, pretty clean. It wasn’t pretty, but he’s going to be fine in a couple weeks.” Rhodey rolled his eyes, “Apparently, the genius is already trying to wrangle a flight back to the states against medical advice.”

Natasha snorted, “Sounds like Tony, alright.”

Steve smiled, “Well, if he’s already trying to play escape artist, he can’t be too bad off. What about the woman who attacked him?”

Rhodey’s face darkened, “They’re not sure if she’s going to make it. They can’t find the assault weapon either. The Japanese government has already said they’re not planning on pressing charges against him, and she doesn’t have any family to speak of. It’s pretty clear cut self-defense, considering she might have killed him if her sword had been just a little more to the left.”

“Well, I think I’m going to hit the gym for a bit. Need to clear my head out, after all of that,” Steve said with a smile as he headed towards the gym. The other Avengers either grunted or nodded their approval, the rest of them scattering for the day, all of them off to deal with the emotional roller coaster that had been the news of the assault on Tony in their own way.

Steve wanted Tony to come home soon, but he hoped that Tony would be smart enough to stay in Japan at least long enough to be healthy for the flight home.

* * *

 Tony was not smart enough to stay in Japan long enough to even close the hole in his chest.

“Cap!” Tony greeted, nudging himself onto his elbows to get a better look at Steve. The smile that Tony wore seemed to be free from his usual obfuscations, and it warmed Steve to see the genuine Tony that was buried underneath the billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

Well, it warmed him whenever he wasn’t frustrated to death with the man. “Tony!” Steve tried to sound stern, and judging from the arched eyebrow Tony was sporting, he was at least half way there.

“Why are you wearing the ‘Captain America is Disappointed in You’ face? What did I do to-” Tony broke off into a wet sounding coughing fit, hunching over with his face twisted into a grimace.

Steve rushed to his side, “Lay back, come on.” Steve’s hands came up to Tony’s chest, making sure to avoid the area where he had been stabbed, and gently but insistently laying him back down onto the bed.

“Well,” Tony’s voice was soft and hoarse, “I’m guessing you’re not here to check on the upgrade I made for-”

Steve didn’t bother speaking, just fixing Tony with what everyone had come to call “The Look.”

Tony’s smirked tickled something in Steve that made him simultaneously want to shake the man and kiss him. Tony had, however, lapsed into silence, though he pulled off obstreperous silence as only Tony could.

“I’m here because I was worried about you.” Steve’s eyes darted to the tablet at Tony’s bedside, “And I was told that you were on strict bedrest. Which means no working from bed.”

Tony pouted. There was no other word for it, “But Cap! I have, you know, dozens of things that need doing! There’s the new designs for the StarkPhone that we’re putting out, an upgrade for the entire Stark line of UIs, upgrades for the whole merry band of adventurers, and mountains of paperwork. Have you seen the paperwork? I swear, Pepper is going to-”

“Pepper is going to go off and do a variety of things that do not consist of taking care of Mr. Stark, because Pepper has to deal with the company and the stock drop that resulted from someone getting stabbed.” Pepper’s clear voice rang out as she interrupted Tony, walking into the room as if she owned it. She barely glanced at Steve before she refocused on Tony, a slight tug of her lips belying the harsh words and the arched eyebrow.

“Pepper Pott, it’s not my fault I was stabbed by a crazy fan! How was I supposed to know she wanted,” Tony paused, blinking once before reorienting on Pepper. “Actually, why did she stab me?”

Pepper shook her head, “We weren’t able to get anything out of her. She lapsed into a coma, and she’s fading fast. It doesn’t look like she’ll pull through.”

A shadow flickered over Tony’s face, “Oh. I see. Well, I suppose crazy stalker lady’s motives will just have to remain in the dark.”

Steve sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, “She has no one to blame but herself for what happened, Tony. You were defending yourself _after_ she had already stabbed you in the chest. She almost hit your heart, Tony.”

Tony winked at Steve, “Glad to know that All-American Goodness thinks I still have one.”

Steve let out a huff and smiled at Tony, “Well, if you’re well enough to sass me, I’m sure you’ll be bouncing right back. I’ll drop by again later to check up on you.”

Truth be told, Steve did not feel at all comfortable in the same room as Miss. Potts. The CEO of SI had made no secret of the fact she was not the biggest fan of the Avengers where it concerned Tony, and was a huge proponent of Tony taking himself off the bench entirely, rather than just having him sit on second string.

Tony had mentioned that while the pair still harbored no small amount of mutual love and affection, their life goals were simply too disparate for them to mesh as long term partners. Tony wanted someone who would be fine with who he was, Iron Man and all, and was no longer sure, in the wake of Ultron and in the face of the current Anti-Hero political climate, that such a person still existed.

Tony had obviously failed to consider his fellow Avengers in his dating pool, but Steve wasn’t surprised by that.

Steve, however, was not planning on leaving New York proper until he got another chance to meet with Tony, preferably alone. Steve busied himself with finalizing some training rotations for the S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits and making sure Rhodes and Natasha were putting them through their paces before he tried popping into see Tony again. Tony was, as Steve expected, hard at work on his tablet. His tongue was sticking out of the side of his mouth as he focused on whatever it was that deserved his undivided attention. Steve let himself think for a wistful moment how it would be nice if Tony stared at him the way he did his projects before pulling himself together, knocking to announce himself.

Tony’s hyper-focus switched to Steve for a fraction of a moment before he relaxed. “What’s up, Stevie Pop?”

Steve snorted at the nickname, “Just wanted to make sure you were alright. We didn’t get much time before Miss. Potts came in.”

Tony sighed, putting his tablet down, “Yeah, there was a lot of stuff she needed me to catch up on. Turns out investors and shareholders aren’t much pleased when the guy with his name on the side of the building goes and gets himself stabbed in a foreign country.”

Steve frowned, “Shouldn’t you be getting more rest?”

Tony waved off the concern, “If it was just that? Maybe. But there’s the whole political song and dance. Can’t avoid the dancing monkey routine for anything.”

Steve smiled grimly, remembering his time in the USO tour, “Once they sink their claws in, they’ll never let go.”

Tony nodded his head, “Some of what they’re asking for isn’t unreasonable-”

“Tony!” Steve interrupted, shocked that Tony was even considering compromising with people who would just as soon see them all in chains and the rest of the world unprotected.

Tony fixed Steve with a look, too stubborn and too knowing, “I said ‘some’, Steve. I had to come back for damage control. I know some of the people involved in bringing this up, and I’m confident that I’ll be able to mitigate the worst of it.”

Steve frowned, reaching out to cover Tony’s hand with his own, “We don’t need you to martyr yourself for us, Tony.”

Tony smiled, but his pallor and generally wan appearance stole whatever humor the man tried to infuse it with, “It is what it is, Steve. The rest of the Avengers are good people, but they don’t have the clout I do. I may not be able to get everything you want, but I think I’ll be able to come to a good compromise with them.”

Steve hesitated, squeezing Tony’s hand tighter. He didn’t want Tony to push himself any more than he already had. Tony gave so much to them, without worry and without reservation. That was one of the many things about him that Steve, well, admired. Admired greatly, as the case may be.

“If you think you can do something about it, I trust you, Tony.” Steve said, holding Tony’s gaze just as he held Tony’s hand in his. Tony’s eyes crinkled at the corners, and years fell away as he smiled at Steve, squeezing his hand. Steve felt something light up in his chest at the sight. Maybe things would be turning out for the better after all.

* * *

 Tony took a little while to get back up on his feet, but it gave Steve an excuse to regularly visit the man. Of course, he wasn’t the only one to do so. The rest of the Avengers all paraded themselves through the Tower at one point or another, all with well wishes and inquiries as to Tony’s health. And, even though Tony was still confined to his bed, he had obviously made some sort of headway on the Accords issue. He had had several meetings with the likes of Secretary Ross and several other international figures linked to the Accords, and it seemed that the actors on the world stage were, for the most part, willing to listen.

Rather than talk about restrictions and action against the Avengers, talk turned towards creating a partner organization in the UN. Talk of the Superhuman Outreach Organization, jokingly dubbed ShOO by Tony, was floated as an alternative to the accords. Tony had sent the initial outline of the proposal to Steve, and Steve could agree that it was a good blend of accountability and flexibility for the Avengers.

Its purpose was to ensure that the Avengers had the ability to legally cross international boundaries and work all over the world without stepping on anyone’s toes. They would also be helping pick up some of the financial slack coming from the aftermath of some of their more worrying battles. There were also clauses about aid being given to those who voluntarily came forward to ShOO or the Avengers, but Steve had a feeling that anyone harboring powers of their own would need more of a guarantee before they decided to come out of the shadows.

All in all, though, Steve was impressed with what Tony had managed to push through. He hadn’t thought that Tony would be able to convince Ross and the other politicians to agree to something that wouldn’t hinder their rights as individuals, or their ability to help people out in the world.

“It’s all about love, Cap,” Tony had told him when Steve got around to asking. Tony had been looking better and better, and was even getting up for brief strolls around the Tower, as well as PT, though he was still bared from his workshop by FRIDAY and Pepper.

“Love?” Steve arched a skeptical eyebrow, but couldn’t keep a corner of his lips from popping up in a smile.

Tony snorted, but matched Steve’s smirk, “Yup. Even people like Ross want to help, they’re just, you know, stupid.” Tony shrugged, and his grin morphed into something that would have been more at home on a shark, “It’s just about guiding them on the path to what they want. Ross loves power, as well as people, and a spot in ShOO was enough to get him to change his tune. As for the other, smaller countries, ShOO was going to give them a bigger say in how things were shaking down, so of course they were going to change their tune. Yes, they’re all supposed to care for the people, but they’re in love with power. I just played that, and it all worked out.”

“And what do you love, Tony?” Some demon made Steve say. He wished he could take the words back almost as soon as they left his lips. Tony looked shocked for a moment before his smile morphed into something almost coquettish. His eyes were drooped and he was focusing on Steve in a way that sent shivers down his spine.

“Well, I’m in love with a lot of things. Engineering, science, math. Myself, some people would say. And, the Avengers, of course.” Tony had slipped into Steve’s personal space as he spoke, and Steve couldn’t tell if it were just Tony’s constant need to flirt or just the raw charisma and sensuality that the man radiated that made his words sound so damn dirty.

“Oh? That so? I could swear with the way you hole yourself up in this tower you were avoiding us.” Steve managed to get out. Steve was actually quite proud of how even keeled he sounded.

Tony laughed, something warm and smooth, “Well, I guess I should fix that, then. I’ve got to head over to PT, but I’ll be seeing you later, Cap.” Tony’s hand brushed his shoulder as he swept past Steve to the elevator.

Steve stood stock still for a moment before taking a fortifying breath and heading out himself. Regardless of whatever _that_ was, and it was certainly something Steve wanted to investigate in far more detail later, Steve had a pile of work all his own to deal with at the Avengers facility. Flirting, or smoldering, or whatever, could wait till later.

* * *

 

“What do you mean, gone dark?” Steve gritted out. They had been on the trail of several of Hydra’s heads, but the more and more they looked, these days, the less they seemed to be able to find.

Sam just shook his head, “Exactly what I said, Steve. Rumlow’s gone dark. Him and the former STRIKE teams are all off the grid.”

Steve’s grip on the table tightened, and Steve was glad for the fact that Tony had reinforced the glass of the table to withstand supersoldier strength, “And the HYDRA higher ups we got Sturker to inform on?”

Sam sighed, “I’m sorry, Steve, I really am. But we’ve got _nothing_. Maybe they’ve finally decided to lie low until they’ve built themselves back up? The Avengers have been doing a good job of cleaning them out, after all.”

Steve shook his head, but didn’t argue. Sam was right, on a tactical level, but Steve had never known Hydra to be shy. They liked to be covert, yes, but they were exposed now. Their goal of forcing the world to surrender to their ideal of “peace” would only be served better by working in the spotlight, now.

“Hydra’s going to have to be on the backburner for now,” Fury said as he strode into the conference room where Steve and Sam were going through their data. “We have bigger potential problems than HYDRA going down for the count.” Fury’s one good eye focused on Steve, “Or, even, a super soldier who has managed to stay off the radar.”

Steve bristled at that, “Finding Bucky-”

“Is not a priority,” Fury insisted.

Steve took a calming breath through his nose, but his knuckles were still white against the table, “And what is?”

Fury waved his hand at a blank glass wall, lighting it up as a full briefing shines to life. Photographs and news clippings stream across the glass along with a map of various cities, various spots highlighted. “We’ve had a spate of attacks that local law enforcement can’t seem to pin down. I want the Avengers on it.”

Steve heard the table creak under the force of his grip, “You’re pulling us off of Hyrdra and Bucky for-”

“Captain, I wouldn’t be tasking you with this if I didn’t think it was necessary. These attacks have gotten more and more wide spread, lately, and they’re spreading. Copy cats are popping up all over the globe. No one’s been killed, but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a problem. Even with the Superhuman Outreach Organization, we still need to make sure we stay on the right side of public opinion.

“This ‘New York Slasher’ has been targeting criminals, primarily. Street thugs, muggers, burglars, rapists, the whole nine yards. People are already linking them to superhuman vigilantism, same way they’re doing with Spider Man and Daredevil, along with a couple others. We need to get ahead of this.” Fury’s tone and gaze were both uncompromising.

Steve knew that Tony had been doing good work in advocating for the Avengers on the world stage, but despite his best efforts, public opinion, while swaying, was still mixed. Steve had been hearing about this “Slasher” character for a while, especially when he went to visit Tony in New York proper, but as there had been no deaths, Steve hadn’t really paid it any mind. Tony would have told him if it were something important, just as he had with Spider Man and the other vigilantes that were starting to come out of the woodwork.

Steve let the air of his lungs slowly, easing up on the table and standing straight as he did so. “Alright, Fury,” Steve said, his tone more even, “we’ll take a look into this. Any leads?”

Fury shook his head, “That’s part of our problem. Nothing is showing up on cameras, street cams or otherwise. All the attacks of taken place either in locations without cameras or the cameras on site malfunctioned for the duration. Whoever they are, they’re good, they’re clean, and they’re thorough.”

Steve was starting to understand why Fury wanted them on this. Fury wasn’t a man that enjoyed being without intel on a situation, and to be fair, neither was Steve. It would be in everyone’s interests to find out what was going on with the Slasher, and move from there.

“Alright, we’ll start in New York, since that’s where the attacks started,” Steve said, reading through the information on the wall. “Have you reached out to Tony yet?”

Fury snorted, a bare hint of a smirk teasing his lips, “Even if I had, he’d only tell me what he wants. You’ll have better luck getting actionable intel out of him than I would.”

Steve let out a rough breath of a laugh, “We’ll, you’re not wrong about that.”

Steve gathered the team and they headed straight for New York, with the rest of the team faning out across the city while Steve went to the Tower to see what Tony had for them. Steve wasn’t sure what Tony would have for them, but he hoped it would be better than the big pile of nothing Fury had left them with.

Tony blinked, “Slasher? Crazy person with a sword eerily reminiscent of the person who put a hole through my chest? Yeah, no. I’ve been staying clear of that and steak knives.”

Steve rolled his eyes, but smiled, “You can’t expect me to believe you have _nothing_ , Tony.”

Tony gave him a faux glare, “Well, I don’t have something either. I’ve been tracking his attacks, and it looks like we’re getting copy cats in major cities around the globe, but other than that, no, I don’t really have anything worth mentioning.”

Steve sighed, “Do you mind pushing the location data to the Quinjet? We’ll look over some of the international data while we’re out.”

Tony waved his hand. He had been looking much better, recently, more like his old self, all smiles and light and tousled hair. He’d even taken less to holing himself in his workshop and never coming out, according to FRIDAY, and was more willing to take care of himself. Brushes with death could do that to a body, Steve knew.

“Oh, one more thing,” Tony said almost absently. Tony tapped his phone a couple times, and Steve’s rung in response. Steve pulled his phone out and looked at the notification Tony had sent him. It was a set of coordinates on the border of Germany.

“What’s this?” Steve asked.

Tony tilted his head, then tapped his phone again.

This time it was a picture. One of Bucky in a market place.

Steve’s breath caught in his throat as his gaze shot up to Tony, “Tony, this is-”

Tony held up a finger to his lips. “Just something I thought you might want to pursue, Cap. Slasher Copycats have been really active in Europe, so who knows. Might find something out if you start there.”

Steve swallowed down the words stuck in his throat, just nodding. He couldn’t begin to thank Tony enough for what he had done, so what was the use of words? Steve resolved that he would _show_ Tony how much this meant to Steve, how much _he_ meant to Steve, when they had everything with Bucky sorted out and when they had more info on this Slasher.

Tony smiled, and if it were possible, it brightened Steve’s world up even more, “Stay safe out there, Cap.”

* * *

 

Steve found Bucky in a rundown apartment an hour east of Munich. It was the bare minimum of everything crammed into a single room, but it was Bucky, and he was there, and it was all Steve could do to keep himself from running up to his friend and squeezing him tight and never letting go.

“How did you find me?” Were Bucky’s first words to Steve upon their reunion.

Steve tilted his head, but smiled, “I have resourceful friends.”

They stand there for a charged moment, Steve left to wonder if Bucky remembered a shared past, or just a fight on the hellicariers flying over the Potomac.

Steve gets his answer when Bucky’s face cracks into a bare hint of a smirk, “Took you long enough, punk.”

Steve’s answering smile feels like it’s going stretch straight off his face and into the air around him. Hell, for all he knows, it probably already has. “Wouldn’t have taken me so long if you weren’t running all the time, jerk.”

A voice crackles in his ear, “Cap, status?”

“Everything good on this end, Widow. Have everyone stand down.” Cap muttered into his com before pulling his hood off.

Bucky arched an eyebrow, but the faint smirk grew slightly, limping along instead of something dead on the branch, “Your friends come to help you pick me up?”

Steve shrugged, “Can you blame me? Last time I came to knock some sense into you, you damn near knocked my block off.”

Bucky kept a straight face but looked at him askance as he busied himself retrieving cached weapons and supplies, “Well, sometimes that’s the only way to get anything into that thick skull of yours.”

* * *

 

Steve wasn’t sure he wanted to bring Bucky back the Avengers Compound. Fury was there, for one thing, and for another, the compound was constantly ringing with alerts and notices blaring at them to be ready for battle. Steve didn’t think Bucky would recover well there. His friend had responded well to him, but had been guarded and sullen around the other Avengers, and Steve didn’t want to push his friend harder than he had to.

That left Steve with the Tower as a safe location where Bucky could recover quietly as Steve and the others went about their Avengers work. Steve had no doubt that Bucky would be following them out onto the field at some point, out of stubborn insistence if nothing else, but the Tower would give Bucky more privacy than the comparatively crowded compound.

Steve was not using Bucky as an excuse to be at the Tower at almost all hours of the day at all, and anyone who implied otherwise was dead wrong. Steve was planning on spending a lot more time at the Tower, that was for sure. But that was to help Bucky in a good environment for him to recover in. And, well, if Steve and Bucky happened to run into Tony all the time, well, Steve would just have to buck up and deal with it as it came.

It had taken the entire flight to convince the rest of the Avengers, especially Sam and Natasha, that Steve would be fine with Bucky in the Tower. Vision had been the sole voice of consent, and Rhodes had remained stonily quiet the entire time, his gaze shifting from Steve to Bucky and back again. Eventually, when they had hit the United States, Rhodes had pulled Steve aside, “I hope you know what you’re doing, Cap. Tony has enough on his plate right now, and I don’t want you putting him in danger just because you think-”

Steve put his hand up, “I’d never bring Bucky to the Tower if I didn’t think it was safe for everyone involved. And I promise, Jim, that I’ll keep an eye on Buck.”

Rhodes gazed into Steve’s eyes steadily, and Steve could practically feel the other man picking apart his motives, his choices, his motivations, and was reminded very suddenly that this was Tony Stark’s best friend, a man that Tony had had by his side for years, and who had managed to keep up with Tony’s breakneck pace through life.

“Yeah,” Rhodes said in the end as they touched down at the tower, “see that you do.”

Steve sighed. He understood Rhodes’s protective streak. Heaven only knew Steve was the same way about Bucky. What Steve was left wondering, though, was whether Rhodes knew that Steve felt more for Tony than camaraderie for a team mate. Rhodes had always been perfectly polite, perfectly kind, and more than a small help in getting the New Avengers onto a stable footing, but this new side to him was something Steve was willing to accommodate when Steve and Tony, rather inevitably in Steve’s mind, moved forwards with their budding relationship.

With that in mind, Steve waved the rest of the Avengers goodbye as they jetted off back to the compound upstate before guiding Bucky into the Tower. “I probably should have let Tony know we’d be here beforehand,” Steve said, rubbing his neck in embarrassment.

Bucky arched an eyebrow at him, tiny little micro expressions ticking across his face, “You didn’t ask the fella we’d be bunking with if he could put up a brainwashed assassin?”

Steve rolled his eyes, “You make it sound so bad when you say it like that.”

“Make what sound so bad? I thought that was my job?” Tony asked as he strutted into the room. Steve guessed that FRIDAY had informed Tony that they had arrived.

Tony blinked as he saw Steve with Bucky, “I’m guessing you must be the infamous Bucky Barnes. It’s a genuine pleasure to meet you.” Tony extended his hand to Bucky after he spoke, his smile small, but genuine and affable.

Bucky blinked. It took a moment before Bucky gave Tony one of his micro smiles and reached out to accept Tony’s hand. Bucky’s flesh hand clasped with Tony’s for a scant second before Bucky jumped back, yelping as he did so. It would have been comical if not for the fact that Bucky’s metal hand conjured a knife from out of nowhere, his eyes darting everywhere.

“Shit, sorry, guess there was a bit of static shock going on,” Tony mumbled apologetically. “I’ll just get out of your hair so you guys can do whatever it is you need to do.”

No sooner had the words left Tony’s lips than the genius high tailed it out of there. Steve didn’t even have the chance to get a few words in edgewise, either to calm Bucky down, calm Tony down, or reassure them both that their opposite wasn’t going to attack them. Steve sighed, and refocused his attention on Bucky. He would have a chance to track down Tony later, and Steve was sure Tony would be holed up in his workshop, making that task infinitely easier.

“You alright, Buck?” Steve asked as he gently placed a hand on Bucky’s shoulder.

Unlike earlier, the comforting hand didn’t seem to do much to alleviate Bucky’s tension, “Yeah, yeah just spooked. There any place I can bunk down?”

“The guest suites are routinely cleaned. You can take your pick from them, according to the Boss.” FRIDAY’s voice echoed from the ceiling, causing Bucky to jump again.

Steve let out a pained smile. He knew that FRIDAY and Tony were only trying to help, and that whatever it was that had spooked Bucky when he had gripped Tony’s hand had left him on high alert, “Thanks, FRIDAY, I’ll help Bucky pick.”

FRIDAY only chimed in response, apparently coming to the realization that Bucky wasn’t quite comfortable yet.

“Who was that?” Bucky asked as Steve herded him into the elevator.

“FRIDAY,” Steve answered, pushing the button for the guest floor, “she’s Tony’s secretary, I guess. She runs the Tower and keeps an eye on him, does whatever else he needs to boot.”

Bucky seemed to be relaxing, his shoulders no longer quite as bunched, “She watching us?”

Steve rubbed the back of his head, “I guess? She’s an AI, so she keeps an eye on everyone in the Tower, but she’ll leave you alone if you ask her. She’ll also help you find whatever it is that you need, too, so don’t be afraid to ask.”

Bucky just nodded, and the pair of them settled into a contemplative silence until the elevator doors opened. Bucky just went to the closest guest suite, testing the door and finding it opened for him easily. He turned back to Steve as he stepped through, “Thanks for coming to get me, Stevie.”

Steve smiled in response, “I’ll always come to get you, jerk.”

Bucky gave Steve the biggest smile he had seen so far from his friend before Bucky entered the room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

 

Steve had originally been worried that, due to their first encounter, Bucky and Tony would be avoiding one another like the plague. He was pleasantly surprised, though, to find that Bucky had overcome whatever it was that spooked the two understandably hair-trigger men the night before. Steve had gone down to Tony’s lab, in order to drag him out and into the light for some good food and rest, only to find that Bucky had beaten him to the punch.

Two plates filled with crumbs and remnants of ketchup graced a stool, with two mugs of coffee, probably refilled from the workshop carafe, were steaming and seated next to the two men. Bucky’s arm was laid out on the table in front of Tony, who was currently wrist deep in it, tools flitting around as Tony did something incomprehensible. What struck Steve most, though, was the fact that Bucky was sporting the biggest smile Steve had yet seen on the man’s face as he chatted with Tony.

 

“You’re up early. Or should I say late?” Steve said as he walked into the workshop.

Bucky turned to him, his smile widening as he saw Steve, “Trying to get this mook to sleep. We agreed he’d get to bed if I let him have a look at the arm.”

Tony hadn’t broken his laser like focus on Bucky’s arm, but Steve could hear his smirk in his words, “Yeah, yeah. Blackmailing me with beautiful tech. You made me eat, too. Torture. Something about this is violating the Geneva Convention, I’m sure.”

Steve and Bucky both chuckled, Steve’s smile widening at the sound of Bucky’s laughter. “So what exactly does Buck’s arm need work for? Was looking pretty good to me last time I saw it.”

Bucky shot a playful glare at Steve, who just smirked back. Tony, oblivious to the interaction happening literally over his head, answered distractedly, “Arm wasn’t meant to go long periods without maintenance. It’s sturdy, don’t get me wrong. But the internal mechanisms need to be polished up to keep that level of durability. Plus, it’s not bad, you know, for HYDRA, but it could be better. Tweaking it a bit to make it hurt less. More responsive. Won’t be able to get it all done now, but, you know, the whole ‘no more constant pain’ thing is big.”

Steve arched an eyebrow at Bucky.

Bucky’s eyes drooped, a smirk teasing his lips as he shrugged the shoulder of his free arm.

Steve’s nostrils flared and he narrowed his eyes.

Bucky just smirked wider.

Steve let out a huff and rolled his eyes.

Bucky chuckled and turned his attention back to the man working on his arm, as did Steve. Tony was enthralling when he was in a project.

“Stop causing him to twitch, Rogers. Don’t want Robocop’s hand to be stuck in the ‘shocker.’” Tony muttered. It was a tossup, sometimes, whether Tony would actually acknowledge anyone’s presence when he was working, but Steve was usually pretty lucky in that respect. Steve liked to think that it was because Tony was just as conscientious of him as Steve was of Tony.

Steve and Bucky settled down, though, Steve wandering over to the couch in the corner that gave him the best view of the workshop, and where his pad and pencils were. He spent the next half hour tracing the intense lines of Tony working on something he enjoyed before Tony wiped some sweat from his brow and closed up the panels of Bucky’s arm.

“This’ll be good for a bit. Shouldn’t be giving you any more sensory feedback problems. Anything pops up, though, wake me up.” Tony blinked, “Actually, why am I asking you,” he turned to Steve. “Steve, you wake me up if our resident cyborg decides to act all stoic and broody and manly, hiding his secret pain or some shit.”

Steve arched an eyebrow at Tony as he got up and walked towards the pair, but spoke to Bucky, “He’s already got you pegged, huh?”

Bucky rolled his eyes, “Little guy’s got a mouth on him.”

Tony snorted as he got up, smirking faintly as he headed towards the workshop exit, presumably to rest, “That’s fun sized, Buckaroo Banzai. Get it right. See you and Captain Progress, here, later.” Tony said, his fingers barely brushing Steve’s shoulder in passing as a gesture of goodbye. The touch sent electricity arcing through Steve, but before he could say anything, the door was closing behind Tony. Steve huffed and turned to Bucky, only to find his oldest friend with a shit eating grin on his face.

“So, you and Stark, huh?”

* * *

 

Bucky improved by leaps and bounds while in the Tower. By the end of the first week, he was more than fine being left alone with Tony when Steve had to go out for an Avengers call. By the end of the second, he was laughing again, his face full of life and joy. Steve had to admit, though, that he was a little bit jealous of Bucky getting to spend so much time with Tony, though it was obvious Tony was good for getting Bucky back on track.

Bucky had provided a buffer between him and Tony, just as he provided an excuse for Steve to stay in Tony’s orbit. That being said, Bucky seemed more than happy to encourage Steve’s poor excuses for flirting, especially because there wasn’t a risk that Steve would get thrown in jail for it.

“He’s a swell type a guy, Stevie.” Bucky had told him one night before Bucky had gone to bed. The lack of nightmares and screaming was something that Steve was happiest about. Bucky had confessed that he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep until he had moved to the Tower. Neither of them were quite sure what it was that had caused the change, but all Steve could say was that he was glad it was happening.

Of course, everything going well in his personal life meant that Steve’s work was nothing but frustrating. Couldn’t have everything, Steve supposed. The Slasher attacks, along with the copycat attacks, had become even more prolific. They were reaching epidemic levels, and people had started to grow panicked. The news was beginning to brand the Slasher more of a villain than a vigilante, some speculating that there must have been some sort of psychotic break or personal tragedy to cause what was originally a fairly restrained but still very active crusader to turn into a fire branded zealot.

Of course, Steve and the Avengers had found nothing worthwhile in their efforts to track the Slasher, or even the copy cats, down. Fury had even decided to ask, politely, if Bucky could be brought onto the team in order to help apprehend the Slasher, and everyone made a very concerted effort to both ignore the fact that Steve had gone to find Bucky against Fury’s explicit orders and that Fury had found out about it anyway.

The team had started to broaden their search to international attacks, at that point, hoping that one of the copy cats, if they could catch them, would be able to lead them back to the source. The attacks were far too similar and too coordinated for anything other than some sort of top down command structure, in Steve’s opinion.

Of course, leaving more frequently on missions with Bucky meant that Steve didn’t have as much time to woo Tony, often only coming back to the Tower after two or three days in the field. Tony, too, was acting much more distant. Gone were the casual touches, the brushes of fingers and the affectionate smiles. In their place were harried, distant smiles and long spates of the workshop being locked to the world.

Steve resolved that, as soon as the Slasher incidents were resolved, he and Tony would sit down and have a good talk. Steve would carry Tony over his shoulder into the common area, if that was what it took, but the two of them would clear the air and lay everything out and move on, hopefully with one another, afterwards. But that was for the future. After all, it wasn’t as if Steve didn’t have time.

* * *

 

The team’s big break came in the form of a Hulk sighting. The Hulk had been sighed near Qiemo in China. China, and the autonomous prefecture, had welcomed – damn near insisted on, actually – the Avengers and their investigation through the ShOO. Natasha had been tense and quiet, or quieter than usual at least, the entire ride over in the Quinjet. Steve knew that Natasha would keep on mission, and her business with Bruce was very much unfinished, but he hoped that whatever was between her and Bruce would turn out for the better.

The Quinjet touched down outside of a small village and the Avengers surrounded the small house on the outskirts of the village cautiously. Steve had decided to have Natasha accompany him inside while Wanda stayed in the Quinjet. Rhodes, Sam, and Vision would stay in the air, and Bucky would be on the ground in the village in case they needed either help in evacuating or needed to chase the Hulk down.

“Come on in. I promise not to bite,” Bruce’s voice drifted out of the open door. Natasha and Steve exchanged looks before walking inside.

Bruce was sitting in a chair facing the door, face twisted in a rueful approximation of a smile. Despite the tension in his frame, though, his eyes were locked on Natasha, as were hers on him. What Steve noticed most, though, was a young woman tied up in a corner of the small home, looking perfectly at ease despite the fact she was restrained. Her posture and face betrayed no emotion, content, seemingly, to sit and wait for whatever outcome would come next. The thing that caught Steve’s attention, though, were her eyes. They were glowing red.

“Long time no see, Bruce,” Natasha’s voice was soft, her own lips tilting upwards in a small smile.

Bruce’s shoulders seemed to relax minutely, and he smiled, “It’s nice to see you again.”

Natasha ducked her head down for a moment, a larger smiling blossoming to life on her face, “Why come out of hiding now?” Steve admired her dedication to the mission, even if she was obviously happy to see Bruce.

Bruce sighed, turning to the girl in the corner, “I’ve been helping out small Uyghur villages in the area. I decided to stick to, ah, areas with smaller population density for a while. However, I was attacked by this young lady,” Bruce waved a hand to the girl, “just after I’d finished treating her mother for a bad case of pneumonia.”

Steve frowned, “She doesn’t seem like she’d be much of a threat.”

Bruce shook his head, “She was actually very sweat. Came to me in tears because she was afraid her mother was going to pass and she was all she had left. Next thing I know, her eyes are glowing and she’s coming at me with a kitchen knife. I managed to get out of their house before I hulked out, thankfully. Next thing I know, I’m waking up with her in ropes.”

Steve arched an eyebrow, “I didn’t think the Hulk knew the meaning of the word ‘restraint.’”

Natasha shook her head, “Learn something new every day, I guess.”

Bruce frowned, “It took me a while, but I eventually found out that she was the slasher copy cat that’s been active in the area lately. Or, rather, she’s one of the copy cats. There seems to be some sort of supernatural element at work here. Her mother and her friends said that she’d been attacked by a copy cat herself just before I came to the village. Seems more than a little fishy to me.”

Steve frowned, “And you didn’t call because you knew the Hulk sighting would bring us out?”

Bruce took out his Starkphone and smiled, “Yeah. I had to take the battery out to make sure Tony didn’t track me. But, when I was desperate to look something up in the middle of nowhere and decided to take the chance, only to find that not only did I still get reception from the StarkCom satellites, but that no one was chasing after me, I figured Tony was respecting my need for space.”

Natasha frowned, “He didn’t say anything.”

Steve didn’t like Tony’s penchant for secrets, but this one he understood. Steve turned and arched an eyebrow at her, “Would you have been able to stop from coming to visit?”

Natasha’s answering smile said everything she needed to about that.

Bruce sighed, waving it away, “Regardless of what Tony does or doesn’t say about what he may or may not know, I had a feeling you would be working on the Slasher case, so I figured I might as well wait and let you guys come to me.”

Steve smiled, “It’s good to have you back, Bruce.”

Natasha had turned to the girl tied up in a corner. Her face had remained eerily blank throughout their conversation. She made no move to escape, didn’t even given any indication that she was listening to them talking.

“Does she speak English?” Natasha sked Bruce, her eyes never moving from the girl.

Bruce shook his head, “Broken Mandarin. I’m still getting the hang of Uyghur, so that was what we were talking in. Hell, I’m still getting the hang of Mandarin, too.”

Natasha frowned, “We might need to bring Wanda in for this one, Cap.” Bruce’s head shot up to stare at Natasha, his eyes pulsing a violent green, but he said nothing.

Steve sighed before bringing his hand up to the com in his cowl, “Avengers assemble.”

“Cap?” Sam’s cautious voice sounded over the coms.

“It’s alright, situation,” Steve smiled at Bruce, “is, uh, blue.”

Natasha and Bruce snorted in synch. The rest of the Avengers filed into the small house one by one, with Wanda and Bucky being the last ones in. Bruce’s glare as he stared at Wanda sent chills down Steve’s spine. Steve knew that Bruce had quite a bit of unfinished business with Wanda, of a very different nature than his business with Natasha, and potentially far more damaging to the team.

Wanda shrunk back from Bruce, putting Vision in between the two of them. The tension in the room rocketed upwards until Rhodes stepped forward, flipping his faceplate up, “Good to see you again, Jolly Green.”

Bruce’s glare broke away from Wanda as he turned to smile at Rhodes, “I see Tony’s nicknames are as infectious as ever. Platypus.”

Rhodes groaned, but couldn’t hide the chuckle as he clomped over to Bruce’s side, “So, what do you have for us, Big Guy?” Bruce gave the rest of the team the same run down he had given them.

Wanda frowned, “It would be…possible to look into her mind. Perhaps even to dispel whatever it is that has overcome her. We will have to see.”

Bruce remained stoically silent, his eyes trained on Wanda like a hawk on prey until Natasha came up and bumped her shoulder to his. Bruce froze for a moment before sighing and turning to Natasha. She leaned up to whisper something in his ear, and he nodded, the both of them leaving the room to let Wanda do her work.

Vision stood by Wanda’s shoulder, a centering force for the young woman as she reached out with both hands, resting fingers by each of the young woman’s temples. Wanda eyes fluttered shut, and little strings of red energy glowed, crackling between her fingers before they snaked towards the young woman’s head.

Wanda’s reaction was nearly instantaneous. She shrieked, recoiling and stumbling backwards, Vision already in place to catch her. Bruce and Natasha rushed back into the room. Rhodes leveled his repulsors towards the young woman, his faceplate coming down and an arsenal appearing from his arms. Bucky hefted his rifle, and Sam pulled out a gun. Steve just stood, shocked, as the young woman finally acknowledged their presence.

“Mother says you shouldn’t try to take what doesn’t belong to you,” the young woman said in perfect unaccented English, her eyes a brighter red than ever. Wanda was shaking in Vision’s arms, staring at the girl with something like horror on her face.

Then, as if her strings were cut, the young woman slumped to the ground, looking peaceful as she slept.

* * *

 

They eventually decided to leave the girl’s fate to the local authorities. It was likely that they would choose to do nothing with her, but they could at least keep an eye on the girl. The Avengers piled into the Quinjet, now including Bruce among their number, and flew back towards New York.

Wanda, far more in control of herself, attempted to piece together what she had seen in the young girl’s mind, “It was vast. Vaster than anything I had expected.”

Sam frowned, “But you threw off the mind gem when it had control of Dr. Cho. You saying it was bigger than an infinity stone?”

Wanda shook her head, “The stone controlled her, then pulled away. What was in Cho’s mind was an imprint, an echo. This was,” Wanda paused, licking her lips as she collected her thoughts, “interconnected. A web of things and thoughts and ideas. Something, this ‘Mother’ was at the heart of it all, pulling each thread towards it. When I touched the girl’s mind, she tried to pull me in as well. Doors can be entered from both sides, after all. I was lucky to see what I was able to and pull away.”

Vision was holding her, rubbing her shoulders gently, “What was it that you saw, then, before you closed the connection?”

Wanda let out a rough breath of air, “The ‘Mother’ is the Slasher. Of that, I have no doubt. And she is in New York. She hunts by night. All she thinks of is love.”

Steve blinked, “Love?”

Wanda nodded, “Love, to her, is to join with more and more people. It is to cut, and to slice. I cannot say why she thinks this way, or how, but it is her truth. She is nothing but love. She,” Wanda’s face twisted, “ _cares_ for her children. She cared for me.” Wanda shuddered.

Bucky’s face was impassive, “And she’s…controlling these children?”

Wanda tilted her head, “Yes, but also no. They are her children, and they follow her. She is stronger than them, and loves them, and they love her. Were it not for their twisted form of affection, I would say it was almost sweet.”

Steve frowned, considering, “If we caught the Mother, what would happen to the Children?”

“They would search for her. They are not always controlled, much like the girl. Until the Children see a need or are called upon, they remain dormant. They aid the host. Make them stronger, smarter. They protect the host, when needed. The host feels the love of the Mother, but until called upon, they live their lives without restraint.” Wanda’s voice was heavy with certainty.

Bruce frowned, “Why did she attack me, then? Why attack anyone at all?”

Wanda’s face scrunched up, “The Mother wants more love. It is never enough for her. When a Child cuts another, a new Child is born in the victim, thus spreading their love. The Mother,” Wanda gazed into nothing, trying to remember, “I think she knew you.”

Bruce looked at her in horror, “But she cut me. Nothing happened.”

Wanda gestured to Bruce, who remained still for a moment before walking, warily, towards Wanda. Wanda made no move towards him, but her eyes grew hazy, when they refocused, Wanda looked relieved, “Your other half was stronger than the Child. I am unsure what would happen if the Mother tried to cut you, but you would probably the only one of us, beyond Vision, who would likely be safe from a cut by any of the Children.”

Sam grimaced, “This isn’t going to be pretty if any of them can just cut us with anything they please and we turn into zombies. The Hulk and Vision are all well and dandy, but from the sounds of it, there are a lot of them. How are we going to keep them off of us all if we capture the Mother and they come after us?”

The Avengers spent the rest of the trip to New York devising a plan to work against a blade wielding mob. While close quarters combat wasn’t advisable, especially given the fact most of the Children appeared to be civilians who were otherwise mind controlled, remote takedown options were limited for most of the team. Steve would be the main weak point of the team, as he didn’t have many long range combat options beyond the shield, which could cause no small amount of bodily harm, if not be outright lethal against civilians.

By the time the team got back to New York, everyone had an idea of their roles and were well rested, getting some rest while the Quinjet was on autopilot. The Avengers waited until night descended before heading back to the city again, Wanda and Vision working together to see if they could try and locate the Mother that Wanda had briefly touched with Vision’s help.

“She feels different from a normal mind,” Wanda said as she searched with Vision. “She does not feel wrong, or evil, necessarily. Simply different. Were it not for her sowing panic and chaos, I would say she were not a real threat at all.”

Steve nodded, “Whatever the case is, we need to put a stop to this. We can see if we can help her after we contain her.” Privately, Steve wasn’t terribly optimistic about the latter option. Their only option with entities like this was Wanda, and if the Mother was so powerful, due to the minds she was linked to, that Wanda couldn’t even stand a couple seconds of staring into her mind, then it would likely make everything far more difficult.

And then they hear a giant thump on the hull of the Quinjet.

Steve, remembering keenly the time Tony had decided to just open the back of a Quinjet the last time someone had landed on it, decided to keep his shield up as they opened the back door of the Quinjet. Only for a _baby_ to swing into the jet. Well, maybe not an actual baby, but the kid couldn’t be more than a teenager.

And then they just stared at one another.

“You need something, son?” Steve finally asks. He knows who this is because Tony had been keeping an eye on the young super hero known as Spider Man, and, judging by his suit, which was very different from all the youtube videos, had been doing a sight more than keeping an eye on him.

Spider Man jolted, as if he had just been woken up, “Oh! Yeah, um, hi, Avengers people, I’m uh, Spider Man!”

Bucky grined, “Yeah, kid, we know.”

“Oh my god, you know me?” Spider Man sounds incredulous and happy all at the same time.

Natasha arched an eyebrow at him, “Were you here for a reason?”

Spider Man jolted again, “Oh, right! Crazy sword people first. There’s, uh, some wackjob with a sword running around Queens. They nearly cut me when I was fighting with an even wackier job with these weird metal tentacle things, but the person attacked the octopus dude first and then came after me. It was totally cool! You should have seen it! They did, like, this weird backflip thing off of a building, though they look totally normal and don’t have webs or anything like I do, but they totally did it, and jumped straight onto his back, and then-”

Steve held up a hand and heard Spider Man’s jaw snap shut, “So you found the Slasher.”

Spider Man nodded.

“Can you show us where they were last?” Natasha asked as she climbed into the pilot’s chair.

The kid nodded so hard Steve was worried his head would come loose.

Spider Man gave them directions to where he had last gotten into a brawl with the Mother. There was, however, no sign of them. “We need to draw them out. This is the closest we’re likely to get, and I don’t want to miss this chance.”

Bruce paused, “If the Mother was going after people like Spider Man and whatever individual he was fighting at the time, it may indicate an interest in enhanced, or at least highly skilled individuals.” Bruce looked around the Quinjet, “We all fit that bill pretty handily.”

Sam side eyed Spider Man, “I’m fine with being bait, but I don’t think we should be subjecting a kid to any more of this. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

Spider Man looked like he was both bristling and sagging, “Hey! I was doing just fine, you know. I’ve been at this a while, and Mr. Stark said I was doing a great job!”

Steve rolled his eyes. He would definitely need to talk to Tony about encouraging the habits of young superheroes, “If Spider Man thinks he can handle it, we’ll let him join us. But if we think it’s too much, I want your agreement that you’ll get out of there. We have reliable intel that there are a lot of, ah, potential flunkies, and all it takes for the mind control to take effect is one cut. Those of us with armor should be fine, but I’m not too sure about your suit.”

If Steve could see Spider Man’s eyes, he was sure they would be lit up, “The suit’ll be fine! Mr. Stark made it out of this new poly aramid he’d been developing! It’s so awesome! It doesn’t chafe at all, and it has a lot more elasticity, and we tested it for flame retardation and against normal weaponry, and it stood up against a point blank hollow jacket round fired from a pistol! And knives! A bunch of knives! It was so cool! Also, he put this neat H.U.D. thing in-”

Steve held up a hand, and could hear Spider Man’s mouth click shut, “Sounds good then. War Machine should probably stay airborne with Sam. The Mother might not go after you if it can’t get through the armor.”

Rhodes nodded, “What about Wanda, then? She doesn’t have any armor, and if she’s caught by surprise, things could go south quick.”

Wanda snorted, energy dancing on her open palm, “I can take care of myself.”

“That is so cool!” Spider Man whispered to himself, barely loud enough for Steve’s enhanced hearing to pick up. Steve traded fondly exasperated looks with Bucky. It was pretty obvious why Tony had taken in this particular stray.

Half an hour after they’d landed the Quinjet at a nearby police station and spread around an open park and had the police clear out civilians as much as possible, the Avengers found out why Spider Man had figured he would be fine.

Well, mostly fine.

“Ah! Oh, wow, I caught it, I didn’t know I could do that! Ooph!”

Steve turned around just in time to see what he presumed was the mother, judging by the vaguely ominous red mist swirling around the sword they were wielding, slash down at Spider Man, who managed to catch the blade. The Mother kicked the kid square in the chest as soon as it became apparent they weren’t going to get the blade back any other way.

No sooner had the Mother kicked Spider Man away than Steve flung his shield towards the figure covered in an overly baggy hoodie. The Mother spun around, blade coming up, and waited until the shield passed over the sword to twist and swing, diverting the shield onto the ground. The Mother pressed the shield down onto the ground, red sunglasses that were eerily familiar peeking out from the otherwise darkened hood.

The Mother dropped to the floor a second later as Sam made a fly by, crouching onto their stomach and then flipping back up a second later when Natasha engaged. Natasha stayed close, trying to mitigate the advantage of length the Mother had in the form of their Japanese style katana. It was odd, though, seeing someone even with the Black Widow in hand to hand combat. The Mother used the hilt of the blade effectively in order to stave off the widow bites, bending and twisting out of the way when it wasn’t an option. Eventually, the Mother landed another good kick to Natasha’s side, creating enough space so that they could follow up with a quick swipe at her arm.

Natasha took the blade to her widow bite, and then vaulted backwards, keeping more space between them, rightly wary of any attempt by the Mother to get at unprotected skin. The Mother was so focused on Natahsa, though, that they missed it when Vision phased up through the floor, grabbing them and placing them in a sleeper hold before they could do anything. There was a flash of red light, and the sword seemed to disappear into the Mother’s chest as they tried to fight off Vision. Eventually, their struggling grew less frantic, until it stopped all together.

The rest of the Avengers waited for a minute before moving closer to the Mother. When Steve saw the face under the hoodie, the whole thing having been ripped off by Vision afterwards in an attempt to see where the sword had gone, he froze. What lay under the hood was a man. An impeccable suit, snazzy red sun glasses and a red shirt peaked out from where the hole at the top of the hoodie dipped down to his chest.

It was Tony.

* * *

 

Steve stared.

How had this happened? Steve wondered as Natasha moved to zip tie Tony’s hands behind his back and his legs together. Tony had proved that, whatever it was that was going on with him, he was physically quite different from his normal armorless self.

“Wanda?” Steve asked. If his voice cracked and shook, no one mentioned it.

The young woman had her hand to her mouth as she looked at Tony, her eyes flickering with fey light. “It, I don’t,” Wanda shook her head, “It’s as if there are two people in his mind. One is definitely the Mother. The other must be Stark, but his voice is softer, quieter. The Mother and her children drown him out.”

Bruce frowned, “Wasn’t Tony attacked not too long ago?”

Rhodes nodded, “In Japan. Some crazy chick stabbed him in the chest with a…sword. Oh my god, you don’t think?”

Steve shook his head, “I visited him after. He seemed fine.”

Sam frowned, “The reports said they never found the assault weapon. Do you think that was it?”

Bruce nodded, “We’d have to examine the sword to be certain, which is something we should be careful about. Were there any other changes since Tony came back from the attack?”

Natasha tilted her head, “After the assailant died in the hospital Tony started working on replacing the talk of the Accords with ShOO. All of a sudden, Ross was singing and dancing to whatever tune Tony wanted. It was kind of creepy, actually. Plenty of other diplomats and dignitaries that Tony met with personally were convinced of his plan, and went home to lobby for it.”

Steve realized what they were getting at with dawning horror, “You don’t think that Tony took control of them, do you?”

Rhodes sighed, “Tones was desperate to keep the Avengers together. He knew the Accords were a bad idea, but he couldn’t get the international community to consider any other compromise. He might have thought it would be just enough to get everyone talking. Not mind control, just a nudge.” Rhodes snorted, “Wait, I take that back. He heard what Ross had done to Bruce. He might have been fine with Ross getting his just desserts.”

Steve thought back. Yes, Tony had been increasingly stressed in the weeks before the attack in Japan, but had he been desperate enough to try and take control of the minds of government workers all over the world?

Wanda shook her head, “I’ve met Ross. I wouldn’t say controlled. Nudged, perhaps. Made to reconsider, even. But neither him nor any of the dignitaries we’ve met in the course of working on Tony’s ShOO have struck me as controlled. They seemed oddly eager to please Stark, however. Perhaps that is the source of the change?”

Natasha nodded her head, “If people cut by the Mother have some sort of subconscious desire to please or protect her, and Tony’s their host, maybe that was the source of the change. It would make sense, if none of them were overtly controlled.”

Sam swore, “HYDRA! We were wondering why they’d gone so deep underground all of a sudden. You don’t think?”

Steve nodded his head, “It wasn’t all at once, either. Cells started going dark. If one member got cut, and then infected the other members, they may have just laid low because Tony wouldn’t have wanted HYDRA active.”

Sam shook his head, “That’s kinda fucked up, but I can’t say I’m sorry to see HYDRA putting itself on the back burner.”

Spider Man raised his hand.

“You don’t have to do that, kid. If you’ve got something to say, then say it.” Steve said, shaking his head at the young man’s antics.

“Uh, you guys said that those, uh, I think they were kids, or something? That they were going to protect Mr. Stark? But, if they’re going to protect him, where are they?”

The Avengers paused before turning to the various paths that funneled into the open space in the park they had decided to use to spring their trap. Dozens of pairs of red eyes greeted them. Police officers, homeless people, doctors, nurses, college students, people of all stripes and sizes were assembled surrounding the Avengers. All of them wore blank faces devoid of any noticeable emotion. All of them had red eyes. All of them had a blade.

“Red Eyes, Take Warning, anyone?” Spider Man muttered as he took in their situation.

“Let Mother go,” they all said at once. Each voice was almost childishly soft, but together, they were a chorus that set Steve on edge.

“That’s not going to happen. We need you all to stand down. We’ll get you all the help you need after we’ve figured out the current situation,” Steve buried any doubts as he replied. He didn’t know how to anticipate these Children’s reaction. Would they think of themselves? Their hosts? Would they only worry about Tony? Or was all they cared about that _thing_ inside Tony?

“Let Mother go.”

Steve gritted his teeth, “Sam, can you get the Quinjet and get back here for a pickup? I don’t think we’re going to get out of this one without a fight.”

Sam nodded, his wings spreading out and he ran, rocketing out into the air a moment later.

“Wanda, stay in the center. Vision, keep an eye on her six. We don’t want our best chance of curing whatever this is getting taken out, and all it takes is one cut.”

“Of course, Captain,” Vision replied as he and Wanda headed to the center of what was becoming a rough circle of Avengers.

“Rhodes, I know this is strange, but I want to keep you on the ground. The more of them you occupy, the better. They won’t have a chance to cut you, so you’re our best line of defense.”

Rhodes sighed, but didn’t argue, “Yes, sir.”

“Natasha, I know you’re careful, but like I said, all it takes is a cut. See if you can keep them at range with the widow bites.”

Natasha frowned, but nodded and trotted into the center with Wanda and Vision.

“Bruce…” Steve trailed off, not quite sure where the good doctor would be the best use.

Bruce arched an eyebrow, “I don’t think smashing would be a good idea. But hey, the Hulk didn’t squish the girl, so maybe he’ll know what to do with a mob of sword wielding zombies.”

“He missed your snark, you know.”

Everyone spun to see Tony rise, the same impartial mask painted on his face, though the red glasses he wore obscured his eyes. Bucky was at his elbow, broken zip ties in hand, eyes glowing red. Steve felt like his world was tilting out from under him.

“What?” Steve could only manage to get out the one word.

The rest of the Avengers distanced themselves from both Tony and Bucky, spacing themselves so they were between the Children and the two possessed Avengers.

“Mother woke up,” was all Bucky had to say on the issue. His face was impassive, but unlike the times he had been the Winter Soldier. There was something more alive, strangely, about the state Buck was in now.

Steve worked past the emotions that were choking him, “Let Tony and Bucky go.”

Tony’s face twisted into a deranged rictus of a grin for a moment, before snapping back. Tony shook his head, “Why? We love him. Not the same love as we have for you, of course. But we do. We love all of you. We love everyone. We just want to show you our love.” Tony’s voice – no, that thing’s voice – echoed with a metallic feminine lilt even as Steve heard undercurrents of Tony’s own warm tenor.

“This isn’t love, Tony,” Steve didn’t know how he was keeping his voice from cracking. Bucky and Tony were right there, and yet so far away. Was he supposed to fight them? Would that bring them back? Would anything?

Tony tilted his head, “I am not Tony. Tony is the other one.”

Steve gasped out a breath of pain. Did that mean Tony was gone?

Bruce frowned, “And who are you? The Mother?”

Half of Tony’s face twisted into that sick grin again. His face twitched before going back to normal. “I am Saika,” the sword in Tony’s hand pulsed with red light, smoother and more sinuous than the crackling energy Steve was used to seeing from Wanda. Was Saika the sword, then? “Tony is mine. I am his. He wanted love. He wanted peace. My Children and I are giving it to him, though he fights us. We love him. You will love him to.”

Steve’s eyes flickered to the shadow of Natasha and Wanda creeping up behind Bucky and Tony. Maybe if they kept this Saika talking, distracted, they could end things without being inundated by the Children.

Saika moved Tony’s hands in a flash. Tony’s right hand drifted over his watch before coming up to his chest, where the arc reactor used to be housed, a sword _melting_ out of his chest and coming to rest in his hand. No sooner had the blade fully materialized than he spun around, leveling a blast at Wanda.

Vision stepped forward, through Wanda, palm outstretched to precisely block the repulsor blast.

Steve heard Natasha curse, and then everything descended into hell. Bucky charged towards Steve, a knife in his hand, eyes glowing an unnatural red. The Children charged forward towards the center, Vision breaking off to take one side as Rhodes took the other. Natasha and Wanda were stuck trying to contain Tony, who was using his repulsor liberally now. Steve didn’t have the time to see what Spider Man or the Hulk were up to, but he trusted them to know what to do.

Steve caught flashes of the battle as he was absorbed in blow and counterblow with Bucky.

Saika dashed to Wanda’s side, blasting at Natasha with one hand while swinging smoothly towards Wanda with the blade. Red lightning clashed with sinuous red mist as the blade met with a telekinetic field.

Rhodes was almost literally covered with Children who were trying to pry him out of the armor.

Vision was similarly inundated, though they just went through him when he wanted them to, and when they tried to charge past him, he would grab them and fling them, mostly gently, back into the crowd.

The Hulk roared as the rest of the Children charged at Bruce. He was batting them aside relatively gently, for the Hulk, basically only pushing them away from him.

Spider Man had taken to the trees on the edge of the clearing, webbing as many Children as he could before they climbed up after him, and then swinging to another tree.

Steve caught Bucky’s knife on the edge of his shield, twisting to disarm his friend, and then kicking at Bucky’s knees, forcing his friend to leap back to create more distance between them. Bucky reached behind him, pulling another knife from god only knew where before charging again. “You know,” Steve gasped out, “I’m getting kind of sick of your weapons habits, Buck.”

Bucky just tilted his head, a grin forming on his lips before he feigned towards Steve’s left and striking towards his right. That was new. The Winter Soldier had never expressed any real emotion, before.

Steve saw Tony take a running leap, spinning over Wanda’s head, flipping in the air so he was facing the earth. He pirouetted, slashing at Wanda while blasting towards Natasha, Vision, and Rhodes in turn before flipping again and landing lightly on his feet. Vision put a hand up to block the blast again, but Rhodes was the unlucky one. The blast took him in the back, and sent him staggering forwards.

“In the back? Dick move, Tones!”

Natasha side stepped the blast and took a running leap at Tony as he landed, her legs trying to wrap around his head. With Natasha too close for Tony to use his blade effectively, Tony arched backwards, letting Natasha sail over him before spinning and righting himself, sword cutting towards Natasha as she tried to get up.

Wanda blasted Tony, sending him flying away before he could cut at Natasha. Steve gasped at the sight, giving Bucky an opening, and suddenly Steve was dropping the shield and pressing against his friend’s arms as a knife edged its way closer to his face.

“If you were going to hit him with an energy blast,” Natasha ground out, sounding winded, “at least make sure he stays down!”

Wanda sounded similarly annoyed, “It should have! And don’t give me that look! I wanted to knock him out, not kill him!”

“Uh huh. He flew twenty feet, Witchy Girl.” Rhodes, the bastard, didn’t sound winded at all. He was using low level repulsor blasts to knock out Children who were trying to flank him, but otherwise, was holding his own well enough.

The Hulk chuckled. He was having fun, apparently, pushing the Children away only for them to get back up and run at him again. Usually when enemies did that, there was a lot more screaming and smashing. Maybe it was because the Children weren’t actually afraid of the Hulk? Was that because of the Children blocking out the fear of the hosts, or because Saika knew that the Hulk wouldn’t hurt them because of Tony?

“Help!” Steve ground out. Steve was on his back now, Bucky’s knife inching closer to his face.

All of a sudden, Bucky was yanked back, giving a chance for Steve to leap to his feet, grabbing his shield and taking up a defensive posture. Bucky tried to gain his feet, but fell again as Spider Man gave jolting, irregular tugs to the web.

“I got him, Captain, I got him!” Spider Man yelled out. Kids were so easy to please these days.

Tony blasted at both Wanda and Natasha in quick succession before disengaging, leaping backwards before spinning and running towards Bucky and leaping into the air. As he had with Wanda, Tony turned in the air, facing down so he could cut the web from Bucky’s back before righting himself in the air. Buck caught Tony in the air, Tony landing with his feet on Bucky’s palm. Tony crouched down as Bucky heaved with his whole body, Tony springing to full extension at the same time, sending Tony rocketing towards Steve.

“Where was all of this during training?” Steve heard Natasha mutter as she tried to intercept Bucky, who was now moving towards Spider Man in the trees.

Steve, for his part, brought his shield up to counter the straight thrust. The moment the sword scraped the shield, though, Tony sent a repulsor blast towards the ground, catapulting him over Steve while spinning. Steve ducked, bringing his shield over him in an arc to protect himself from the rain of cuts that descended on his head and towards this back before Tony landed in a spread out three-point stance.

Tony pushed his askew red sunglasses back into place with his repulsor gauntlet covered hand.

Steve was given a bare second to situate himself before Tony came charging forwards, faster even than Bucky had. Tony was raining cuts and gauntleted fists down on him, and though they were fast, they didn’t have the power behind them that Bucky’s blows had. They were barely stronger than a baseline human’s.

Still, Steve and Tony fought each other with the same fluidity they fought together. Every time the blade was whistling at him, the shield was snapping up almost before it came down. Every Steve threw a punch, Tony had already moved out of the way, dodging by a hair’s breadth.

Steve managed to close the distance between them enough to catch Tony’s sword hand as it swung down, freezing it in place, just as Tony caught Steve’s shield with his gauntleted hand. It brought Tony’s face scant inches from his.

“Hello, love.”

The voice had so much of _Tony_ in it that he just froze for a moment. And then Tony was kicking him onto his back, his shield knocked away from him, and Tony spinning the sword in his hands until it was pointed down at his chest.

“It’ll only hurt for a moment. Then you’ll love us. Just like he always wanted.” Tony’s voice had gone back to that horrible metallic lilt. His face was twisting into that sick, deranged grin, ready to bring the blade down. Steve could see everyone trying to get to him, could see the Quinjet finally in sight, heading towards the park. They wouldn’t get there in time. Rhodes was being plastered with Children, as were Vision and Hulk. Bucky had started throwing knives at Natasha and Wanda and Spider Man, forcing them to dodge or protect themselves rather than advance.

The sword came down, but halted as it brushed against the star on Steve’s chest, stopping just short of piercing the armor.

Steve didn’t think, he reacted.

Steve heaved up, rolling the two of them over, grabbing at his shield as they rolled over and over again. Steve brought his shield up over his head and looked down. Tony had lost his glasses as they had tussled, leaving Steve staring into the warm brown eyes he loved so much. Steve saw the love in them, too, as they gazed up at him.

“Finish it, Steve.”

Steve brought his shield down.

Tony screamed as the sword in his hand was severed at the hilt by his shield. It was a scream taken up by the rest of the Children, including Bucky. Then, as if all their strings had been cut at once, they collapsed to the ground, asleep.

* * *

 

Steve paced relentlessly as he stared at the containment room Tony had been locked in. The people in the park had all woken up a short while after Steve had broken the sword, confused as to why they were all in the park and all together. After Natasha had given them the apparently very probable excuse of a surprise flash mob all of them, universally, had shrugged it off and moved on. Steve had a feeling whatever it was that was in their minds was still playing a part, but in this instance, he was grateful for it. They had sent Spider Man home, as well, with a promise that they would all tell Mr. Stark how impressive he was in the fight, and that they would make sure Mr. Stark would come by again later.

Bucky was taking quite a bit longer to wake up, as he was still unconscious. They had fished out some adamantium restraints from the Tower, and had kept him nearby, waiting for him to regain consciousness. Wanda had given Bucky as clean a bill of health as possible, saying that the Child in his mind had subsided, much as it had with the Children at the park. As to the reason Bucky was still unconscious, Bruce had a theory.

“I’m guessing Tony cut him directly, at some point,” Bruce had said as he picked up scraps of his clothing. Luckily, he had apparently chosen to constantly wear the underwear Tony had made for him, meaning he wasn’t completely nude. “There’s probably a stronger connection between that Saika entity and the Children she directly created than whatever Children those Children made.”

But now, they were at the Tower, with Bucky still unconscious and Tony hooked up to medical monitors on the other side of a blast proof door. Bruce, Vision, and Rhodes in the War Machine armor had taken the shards of the sword, placing them in Bruce’s lab, which had been refurbished and retrofitted since the Ultron incident. Bruce had gotten a little teary when he had seen it. Proof positive that Tony had had faith that Bruce would return, at some point.

Natasha had elected to stay with Bruce as he, Vision, and Rhodes worked on analyzing the remains of the sword, hoping that they would be able to find some sort of way to reverse the effects of the sword on Tony and the others. Wanda was staying vigil over Bucky, just in case he woke up and everything wasn’t as it should be. It left Steve with Sam, keeping an eye on Tony, praying that he would get up, that Steve wouldn’t be responsible for sending the man he loved into a permanent coma.

“Tony’s strong, Steve. He’ll pull through this,” Sam said, his hand on Steve’s shoulder.

Steve barely registered the weight of it, “You’re right. I know you are. He fought that thing off at the end. Gave me a chance to save him. But, what if what I did just made things worse? What if this is what kills him?”

Sam shook his head, “You and I both know that Tony Stark is a stubborn grad A asshole. He’ll come back from this, just so he can rub it in our faces that it took the entire team to take him and the one armed wonder down. Believe in that, if you can’t believe in him.”

Steve nodded, “Yeah. Bucky, though. He’d been doing so well with Tony. Seeing him fighting against us again, I just…” Steve trailed off, no longer able to find the words.

“Sorry about that, punk.”

Steve spun around, hope burning in his chest as he saw Bucky being escorted into the room by Wanda. Bucky looked no worse for the wear for what he had been through and the fighting they had done. Both Bucky and Tony had been pulling punches in that fight. They had only wanted to nick the Avengers, at most, not kill them. Steve and the team, too, had been doing their best to avoid fatal hits, and it looked like it had paid off.

“Get over here, jerk. You’ve got a lot to answer for,” Steve said as he pulled Bucky into a bear hug.

Bucky laughed, “Yeah, yeah I guess I do.”

Sam arched an eyebrow, “There a reason, though, you’re back from the brink so fast? I’ve seen people go through less and take far longer to come back out of it. You don’t just get over brainwashing after spending a couple weeks with Tony Stark.”

Steve ducked his head and shuffled his feet. Sam’s words were directed towards Bucky, but they sent a lance of shame through Steve. If he had been quicker on the uptake, if he had noticed something was _wrong_ , ironically, with Bucky getting better, they might have been able to avoid so much of this. But Steve had only seen Bucky’s smile, and Tony’s laughter, and the rest had been dismissed.

Bucky shook his head like a dog shedding water, “It was that cut. I think it happened the day we came to the Tower. I don’t think Tony wanted to do it. I think she did. She cut me, and then the…” Bucky’s eyes grew distant for a moment before snapping back, “the Child, Saika’s Child, it ate what was left of the Winter Soldier. All the triggers. The pain. All of it, The Child ate it all and what was left was just,” Bucky closed his eyes and sighed, “love. All I could feel was love.”

Sam’s eyes were wide with wonder, “You know. If there weren’t so many fucked up side effects, I’d say this would be one of the best PTSD treatments I’ve ever seen.”

Bucky nodded, “The Child and the Winter Soldier are the same thing, now. I think that the Child, actually, became stronger than normal because of it. The Winter Soldier meant there was so much more room for the Child to grow and love, and it was just,” Bucky shook his head again. “I can’t describe it. It’s, I know it looks like what HYDRA did, but it doesn’t feel like it. It was the Child in the driver seat the whole time, but it felt like I had a choice, that making Mother happy made me happy, made me feel loved.”

Sam shook his head, “Super fucked up. I don’t even know where to start. Definitely not HYDRA level fucked up, but still.”

Steve had kept an arm around Bucky as he spoke, and pulled his friend in again, “You’re alright, now, and that’s what matters. Do you feel anything from Tony, still?”

Bucky looked at Tony, laying comatose on the bed, “Mother’s still there. But not there.” Bucky’s face scrunched up, “Where is she?” Horror was beginning to dawn on Bucky’s face, “Where’s Saika? Where’s the sword?”

“The sword is in Bruce’s lab, but-” Bucky dashed out of the observation room as soon as the words had left Sam’s lips.

Everyone ran after him, though only Steve could keep pace. Bucky set a frantic pace to Bruce’s lab, though Steve wasn’t sure how he knew to get there. Maybe Tony had shown him, at one point.

Bucky skidded into the lab to be met with wide eyes from everyone present, Natasha slowly moving to stand between Bucky and Bruce.

“Where’s Saika? Where’s the sword?” Bucky asked, panting.

“We still have all the pieces. We were going to try liquidating some of the smaller-” Bruce started, eyes flickering to Bucky and Steve and back again.

“Don’t do anything that could hurt it. She’s still connected to Tony,” Bucky interrupted, eyes desperate.

Bruce’s eyes widened, “She? You mean the sword is Saika? Not some entity in Tony?”

Bucky nodded, “They’re still linked. I can feel it. She’s,” Bucky’s face scrunched up, “she’s a lot weaker, after Steve smashed her. Everything’s going to Tony now, instead of her.”

“Everything?” Vision inquired, tilting his head to the side. Wanda and Sam caught up a moment later, relaxing when everything appeared fine.

Bucky nodded, “There’s this sort of exchange between Mother and the Children. It was kind of split between Tony and Saika, but there were so many Children that, eventually, she just sort of overpowered him. Now, it’s going to Tony instead of her.”

“Stark did feel more present, even as we were leaving. At this rate, he should be fine by morning,” Wanda said in between gasps as she caught her breath.

Sam nudged Wanda, “On your left.”

Wanda glared at Sam before turning her nose up at him, spinning him around with a wave of her wrist, “On _your_ left.”

Steve rolled his eyes at their antics before refocusing on Bruce and Bucky’s discussion.

“So we can’t destroy the fragments?” Bruce asked, looking consternated.

Bucky shook his head, “At this point they’re kind of melded together. If you just up and kill her or try and zap her…” Bucky trailed off meaningfully.

Rhodes sighed, rubbing his hand with his face, “Tones will go the same way. Yeah, I think we get it now.”

Bruce frowned, “So what can we do then? Launch them into space? Bury them? Use the mind stone?”

Bucky shook his head, “I don’t think that’ll be a good idea. I can’t say for sure, but from what I can feel from the Child, the closer Tony is to her, the better.”

Steve sighed. Now that the immediate danger was passed, and Bruce, Vision, and Rhodes weren’t about to destroy the sword, Steve thought that they could all use some rest. He said as much, too.

“We can get back to this tomorrow. If Wanda’s right, and Tony is going to be waking up in the morning, it’ll mean he can join us in debating whatever happens to Saika, especially if he’s still linked to her. For all we know Tony may have some intel to add to the situation. Can we all agree with that?”

Steve saw the rest of the Avengers nodding before they all decided to retire for the night. They had a lot to deal with in the morning, after all. Bucky gave Steve another smile as he walked into his own room, “Thanks for trusting me again, Stevie.”

Steve just smiled in return, “Always, Buck. Always.”

Steve was glad that Bucky was getting some good rest, and that he had been freed from Saika’s control, but sleep was still long in coming for Steve. He laid on his bed for hours, his battle with Tony and Bucky playing over and over again in his mind, images of where he could have stopped it if he had just known, beforehand, what was going on. All the little signs that had been there from the start, if he had only just paid attention. Eventually, though, Steve managed to let it go and drift off to sleep, if only for a night.

Until the alarms started blaring.

Steve shot out of bed, “FRIDAY, status!”

“Boss just broke out of containment! He’s used some of my base protocols to seal off access to Dr. Banner’s lab and his workshop.” FRIDAY’s voice was frantic, and Steve was already heading towards the workshop when she finished.

“Avengers assemble! At Tony’s workshop!” FRIDAY broadcasted Steve’s call to assemble throughout the rest of the Tower.

“All doors are on lockdown, Captain!” FRIDAY said as Steve tried the door to the stairs.

“Override code, S Rogers Alpha Phi Four!” Steve would have ripped the door from its hinges if he could, but he knew the doors in the Tower were all specially proofed against that type of abuse, especially since the Ultron disaster.

“Override accepted! Avengers access granted to all floors!” FRIDAY said, and Steve heard a thundering roll of cracks as she unlocked every door in the stairwell, all the way between him and Tony’s workshop. He felt Sam and Wanda buzz past him as they streaked downwards, and saw Natasha running down the stairs with Bruce. Steve guessed Rhodes was suiting up and Vision was melting down through the floors to get to Tony.

Steve didn’t bother sprinting down the stairs, instead vaulting from the handrails on one level to the one below and repeating until he had hit floor of Tony’s workshop. He burst through the door to Tony’s workshop level, only to find Bucky standing off against some of the other Avengers in front of the now blackened glass doors to the workshop proper. Bucky, whose eyes were glowing an unnatural red.

“I thought you said he was clean!” Sam growled out to Wanda. His exosuit was on top of his pajamas.

Wanda kept her focus on Bucky, “He was. The Child woke when Tony did.”

Bucky tilted his head as Steve approached, “Mother didn’t like being tied down.”

Steve shivered. Tony did hate being restrained, likely something to do with his time as a captive in Afghanistan. Had he woken up before they had, and panicked? Had that triggered Bucky to come help him?

“Can,” Steve fumbled over the words, “can we see Tony? Mother? Please?”

Bucky closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were the familiar grey blue he had seen throughout his childhood. “Yeah,” Bucky’s voice was hoarse, “yeah, you can go in, Stevie.”

Bucky fell to one knee, Sam and Wanda rushing towards him. Steve fought between the urge to find out if Bucky was alright and the desire to make sure Tony was fine with his own two eyes. Both urges warred with the fear that Tony had returned to being possessed that red eyed thing from before.

“I’m fine, punk. Go in and check on your fella.” Bucky grinned, pushing Steve towards the doors to the workshop, which slid open for him soundlessly. Steve looked back at Sam, Wanda, and Bucky, all of whom nodded as the other Avengers started to file through the doors. “I’ll explain it to them, Stevie. He should tell you the rest himself.”

Steve nodded and stepped through, the doors sliding shut behind him.

Inside, the lab was dark but for a corner of the room where Tony had kept some older forging tools. He had said he kept them because of what he had gone through in Afghanistan, that, sometimes, it just felt better to pound the metal into shape with his own two hands. The forge shone with fiery red light, illuminating the figure of Vision, who was standing a respectful distance away.

“Vision?” Steve inquired.

Vision turned to Steve and smiled, “I believe Anthony is reforging the sword. I am unsure whether or not this will bode well for him in the future, or if he is in full control of himself, but for now, I believe, there is nothing amiss.”

Steve nodded and stepped towards Tony, only to be met with a hand on his chest from Vision, “He has been unresponsive since the process began. I believe it best we let him finish.”

Steve sighed, “How long do you think that will take?”

Vision shrugged, “I cannot guess. While there is source material regarding the forging of swords, or even the reforging of a broken blade, I am unsure if Saika’s unique properties will make the process longer or shorter.”

Steve grunted and prepared himself for the long haul, grabbing his sketch book and pencils as he watched Tony work hammer and anvil. Tony was in a tank top, his suit and shirt eschewed for the gritty work that Tony seemed to enjoy so much. He was beautiful as he worked, all economy of motion and vivacious action.

Steve lost himself in drawing Tony working the forge, distantly recognizing when the rest of the Avengers started to file in, joining him and Vision. It felt like almost no time at all had passed between when he had put pencil to paper and then, suddenly, Tony was standing in front of him, sword in hand.

“Steve,” Tony’s voice sounded so broken, that Steve didn’t stifle the urge to reach out and bring Tony into his embrace.

“It’s alright Tony, I’ve got you now.” Steve cooed as Tony was wracked by silent sobs.

Eventually, when Tony had calmed down, he moved away from Steve, raising the sword and pointing it at his own chest. His eyes stayed chocolaty brown as he pushed the sword into the space where the arc reactor had once been, reality itself seeming to ripple as the sword slowly vanished.

“What happens now, Tony?” Steve asked softly.

Tony shrugged, looking up at the assembled Avengers after a tense moment, “She’s quieter, now. I don’t know if that’ll change at all, but when she broke, it gave me the chance I needed to grab a hold of her and keep it. I can’t promise that won’t change, but I’ll my best to make sure it doesn’t.”

“And the Children?” Sam asked, his eyes flickering to Bucky.

Tony looked to Bucky, too, smiling sadly, “Nothing’s going to change that, I’m afraid. There’s no off switch. No reset button. No delete key.” Tony coughed out a laugh that sounded as if he had swallowed a jar of nails and screws, “I always thought I would make a shitty dad. Now I’m some sort of fucked up Mom.” Tony laughed again, tears streaming down his face, “For fuck’s sake. I’m now somehow playing June Cleaver to the guy who killed my mom.” Tony cracked a smile as Bucky stiffened, “Yeah, Buckaroo, I know about that. Found out when the HYDRA data leaked. No hard feelings.” Tony shook his head, “God, I can’t believe I even said that.”

Steve gathered his courage, “And what about us?”

“Us?” Tony breathed out. “Is there even an ‘us,’ Steve?”

Everyone else remained silent as Steve nodded, “I want there to be.” Steve choked on the words and the would have beens and the could have beens that swept through him like a riptide, “God, Tony, I want there to be.”

“Why?” Tony bellowed, his eyes flashing red. “Why would you tie yourself to me? To _this!_ ” Tony swept his arm, and Saika’s blade surged up beneath his flesh, slashing at the air as Tony’s hand moved, only to retreat when the arc was done. “I’m a _monster!_ God knows I wasn’t perfect before. Merchant of Death. Creator of Ultron. Butcher. How could you love me?” Tony looked at Steve with tears running down his face, the flickering red light in his eyes almost making them look like blood as they poured forth.

“Because you’re the kindest man I’ve ever known,” Steve said, taking a step forward. “You’re brave,” he was the length of a sword from Tony, “a genius,” another step forward, “willing to give everything to do the right thing,” another step, and there was barely any distance between the two of them. “I love you, Tony Stark.”

Steve swept Tony up into a kiss, swallowing whatever objections or self-hatred would come from the man next. He poured everything he felt, all the worry, the fear, the faith, the love. Steve felt Tony resist for a moment before he went limp. A second later, and Tony’s hands were snaking around his shoulders.

“I love you, too, Steve,” Tony whispered when they parted. “But it scares me. This thing inside me loves, too. But the love is all wrong and warped. What if that’s me, now?”

Steve rested his forehead against Tony’s, “Then we’ll have to teach it what love is really like. Together.”

Tony chuckled, “What is it with you and these togetherness speeches, Cap?”

Steve grinned into Tony’s lips as he stole another kiss, heady with pleasure at the contact, “You just bring out the worst in me.”

“Stop kissen my ma, Rogers!” Bucky shouted from the peanut gallery.

Steve snorted, turning to Bucky as Tony laughed in his arms, “I’mma be your step dad soon enough, jerk. You’d better learn some respect.”

Tony laughed in his arms, the rest of the Avengers joining him in mirth a moment later. Maybe things were more complicated now than they had been. Maybe they could have been simpler. But Steve had his family, his best friend, and the man he loved. There wasn’t any amount of pain that wasn’t worth that.


End file.
